


A Simple Job

by nihilistic_trout



Category: RWBY
Genre: Comfort, Drabble, M/M, Random and short, Romance, fair game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 01:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21828004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nihilistic_trout/pseuds/nihilistic_trout
Summary: Qrow takes on a job he thinks he's perfectly suited for. Unfortunately, he doesn't count on the distraction that is Clover Ebi.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 160





	A Simple Job

**Author's Note:**

> From my canon-divergent idea that if Arthur totally took control of the tech on Atlas, the teams would all have to hide in Mantle and fight back covertly from there. No tags or warnings apply, except for a couple of instances of language I suppose?
> 
> Enjoy! Comments and kudos are, as always, much loved.
> 
> [[The works herein, unless otherwise noted, are done without the benefit of a beta and I own all mistakes made.
> 
> Mandatory disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, all rights go to CRWBY/Rooster Teeth, etc. etc.]]
> 
> ~skybird13 on Tumblr

Qrow clung to an ice-coated ledge two hundred feet in the air and pulled at a twisted clump of exposed wiring. A frigid blast of wind howled down out of the mountains and crawled into his bones despite his projected aura. It took every ounce of focus he had not to drop the tiny tools Polendina had given him, numb fingers stiff and uncooperative. He made a cut and one of the wires sparked. He cursed, sticking his finger in his mouth to mitigate the burn that he would certainly feel later.

His comm crackled in his ear. “Hey Qrow, how is that surveillance tap going?”

Qrow grimaced around the three tools he had clamped between his teeth. He didn’t trust them not to fall out of his pockets and disappear into Mantle below, and if that happened, they were royally fucked. The others needed eyes in the city, and with the drones and the normal surveillance measures compromised, this was their only option. It had seemed like a simple enough job at the time, given his capabilities, and a solitary one, which was even better. But in hindsight, sending the man with the bad luck semblance up to play with live wires on the underside of Atlas had probably not been their best move.

Clover’s semi-regular check-ins weren’t helping.

“I’m working on it,” he said, words slightly mangled around the three sets of pliers. Who the hell needed three sets of pliers? “This isn’t exactly the easiest job.”

“I know,” Clover said with something that sounded like restrained amusement. “I told you that when you volunteered for it and you said, and I quote, ‘I got this’.”

A few snickers cut through the comm at Clover’s gravelly impression. Qrow rolled his eyes. He did _not_ sound like that.

“And I do,” he said. “Or I would if you would quit bothering me.”

“One of these days, I’m going to ask why you were so certain of that.”

“One of these days, I’m going to tell you to mind your own damn business.”

Clover chuckled softly over the comm and damn it if _that_ wasn’t distracting. Qrow considered ditching his earbud for about the third time in the past half hour. He could claim it had fallen out. They would believe him. That was one of the few advantages of his semblance. If he said he had run into a bit of bad luck, well, who was going to tell him otherwise? But he left it in and pulled his attention back to the wiring and the instructions that he had memorized from Polendina. Disconnect that one, run it through a bypass, something, something, something, and the cameras should be up. 

“If you two are done flirting,” Harriet said over the comm. “Some of us would like to get out of the cold.”

“Aw, come on,” Ruby said. “Let Uncle Qrow have fun.”

_Oh, fuck me._

“Uncle Qrow doesn’t need fun, Ruby,” he said. “He needs everyone to shut up so he can concentrate.”

Another low chuckle reverberated from Clover’s connection. “You got it, pretty bird.”

“Pretty bird…” Ruby repeated, her voice accompanied by Yang’s distinctive laughter, muffled as though she were trying to cover her mic.

“Ruby,” he snapped.

“Sorry!”

“Going silent,” Clover said, and finally the blissful silence of a dead comm line beat out the wind, at least for a moment.

Qrow shut his eyes and pulled in a deep breath, taking a moment to shake out his hands. He ran through Polendina’s instructions again from beginning to end, mentally checking off the steps he had already taken, sorting through the noise until he figured out where to go next. He took one more moment to re-center and then he opened his eyes and leaned close to the wires, snipping another one.

His comm crackled again.

“Qrow?”

“Still not dead,” he said.

He could hear the smile in Clover’s voice when he answered. “I’m relieved to hear that. I put us on a private line.”

Qrow paused and glanced down at Mantle, instinctively looking for trouble. “Everything okay?”

“So far, so good,” Clover said.

“So… the private line?”

Clover sighed. “Just taking a breather. There’s a lot of chatter today.”

Qrow winced. The kids were usually pretty focused when it came to action, but they were young enough that the waiting around still got to them. “Sorry about that.”

Clover laughed. It lacked his usual trademark bravado. He sounded… tired. “Don’t apologize. They’re young. I remember when I was their age. I talked nonstop just to keep my nerves in check. I’m sure it drove my teammates mad.”

“You not shutting up? I have a hard time imagining that.”

That drew out another laugh, one of the rare ones that didn’t hide behind a badge or a rank or the constant façade of being completely in control. Qrow smiled and fell silent, focusing on his work. He had always had trouble concentrating when there was too much noise around him. He wondered if Clover dealt with a similar thing.

“You doing okay up there?”

“You _just_ asked me that.”

“As the leader of Ace Ops to a fellow huntsman, yes. Now _I’m_ asking _you_.”

Qrow paused. He wasn’t sure what to do with that. It had been so long since someone had cared for something other than how well he could function as a huntsman. James had always been a fellow hunter first, when he wasn’t being a straight-up pain in the ass, and Oz… well, Oz had been Oz. Ruby always worried about him but that was different. She was his niece. It was his job to worry, not the other way around, and he hated that she felt the need. Hated himself even more for giving her every reason to worry in the past few months.

“I’m fine. Almost done,” he said, because it was mostly true and because he had no idea what else to say. He twisted two of the wires together and slid one of Polendina’s plastic caps onto it. He hesitated for a second before asking, “Are you alright?”

“I’m good,” Clover said, and a hint of his usual spark came back into his voice. “Just needed some mental space.”

It was more than that. Qrow could hear it. But now wasn’t the time to push.

“I’m not in a position to be great company right now,” he said.

“I know.”

“Not to complain, but why not just turn the comm off?”

A few seconds passed and when Clover answered there was something… weighted in his words. Not heavy exactly. Just physically present. “You feel still to me. It’s nice.”

Qrow nearly dropped his tools in shock. Still? If there was one thing he had never been called in his life, it was still. He didn’t press on that either, but he filed it away in his head for later and twisted another pair of wires together. He checked his work against the instructions Polendina had given him and only when he was certain did he finally tuck the pliers into his shirt pocket.

“Alright, surveillance should be up.”

There was a delay while Clover checked.

“So it is. Great job, Qrow.” He could tell by the sound of Clover’s voice that they were back on the line with the others. The soldier had slid back into place. “Be safe coming down. We’ll see you at the rendezvous point.”

Qrow smirked and put his tools away. “You got it.”

He let go of the scaffolding and free fell for several feet before he morphed and rode the winds down towards Mantle.

**Author's Note:**

> I HC that Qrow gets sensory-overload from too much noise and from what we have so far, Clover strikes me as someone who might suffer from the same thing. 
> 
> I am also clearly making crap up when it comes to the internal mechanisms of Atlas and how tapping into a live wire feed works, but I figure if Qrow can have a sword-scythe-gun-in-one, I can get away with this. Thanks for reading and I'll post more when I have it!


End file.
